I drove up to Vancouver, BC, on Saturday for hockey, beer, and cards with Ian Ryan and Chris McGrew. It was a grand time in that peculiarly Canadian way, where politeness clashes with absolute hockey MANIA. The Canucks won an exciting game against St. Louis, who skated fairly poorly (and St. Louis ain't my favorite town).

And oddly enough, Canadian hockey fights get lavish attention from all camera angles and blow-by-blow commentary by the announcers. In the supposedly more violent US, the announcers usually "Tsk-tsk" the whole thing, and they send the cameras in for close-ups. Weird.